Armsman s/s & polearm need advice

[sweetleaf.]

hello

When new patch come moving home from Hib/excal to Alb/pry. Will be starting at /level 20 when it comes hopefully very soon.

Just need a little advice as i have only ever played casters.
Going to make a saracen armswoman.
The questions are as follows.

a) Should i spec pole at level 20 and stay pole or should i go s/s and spec at 40 into pole.

b) As a saracen i will be 20pts lower in str and con, will this make a big difference to my hits and damage. I am thinking long term ie level 50

Any advice appreciated

Regards

 

[DeSlisser]

Hi Sweetleaf,

I myself have an hybrid briton arseman (50pole, 42shield, 39slash and rest in parry). First on prydwen btw, tho sadly not used much anymore.

If your gonna level him, so no PL, to 50 i would go for the s/s route to 42 shield 39 slash and after that start speccing in pole. If you have a respec with you that will last till level 50 (lets say due to some patch or sumthing) you could then also spec parry higher and respec it to pole when 50. The parry would ofcourse help you in PvE. But only do this when you have a single line respec available at level 50. Or you could respec out of parry at level 40.

Being pole in PvE is imho not worth it. Shield tanks are more usefull in all sorts of different group setups.

Oh and you dont have to go slash.. you could go thrust (more damage in general in RvR with Pole), but remember that you have only one respec at 40. So if you spec slash and in parry for PvE (till your level 40) that you can only respec one skill. So you either have to go thrust from the start or dont spec parry high so you can play slash for PvE till level 40.

I myself am slash due to the better styles in slash. And i still PvE-ed with my Hybrid after 50 and then i always went s/s. In RvR i also am mostly s/s, for slammage and bubble breaking. Switching only to pole when i can whip out the Phalanx/Aegis combo (mostly after slam or when an enemy is messed/stunned)

Mostly performed roles are assisting tank (then combined with slammage of incoming tanks to casters/clerics in my group and then back to assisting [as Buli thought me ;p]) or main tank.


On the saracen thing, well in the end race doesn't matter alot tho str affects your weaponskill etc. Con is something you shouldn't walk away from aswell. But if your set on making a saracen arsewoman then you should just do that. Make a nice sc set compenstating for the str and con. If you go thrust the higher dex does help you, so that balances the reduced str.
Be a fashion victim and make a saracen, they look cool in plate!


Regards



==Edit==

P.s. this is just my opinion and views how you could spec your arseman during the threadmill to 50.

 

[DeSlisser]

Oh and read this thread on pole damage type for RvR. General tendency is to go thrust. Tho as an hybrid you will suffer in the s/s style department, lacking no good anytime style.

http://forums.barrysworld.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73488

 

[ilum]

Keep in mind that by using /level you will not be able to gain autotrained points.

Armsmen autotrain in slash and thrust, so you can level with crush and respec the line away at 40.

Will give you 77 extra points if you do it all the way to 48, you decide whether its worth the hazzle.

Also, if you are considering doing Saracen, then rather go with Inconnu in my opinion.

Inconnu gets 10 more con, same str, 10 less dex but still 70, 10 less qui (polearmers seem to fancy less qui), but the best part is that they get 5% more racial resist (spirit)

 

[old.GeForce]

polearm is based 100% strength, saracen ain't good for str

 

[old.windforce]

since strength is primairy stat strength will reach cap at 50 + half decent buffs

 

[Balbor]

I'm currently leveling a hybrid Highlander Armswoman (L24) and my L50 plan will be 50 Two Handed, 42shield, 39slash and rest in parry. I'm currently specing only Crush and Shield (with a bit in Perry as well) until I get to L40 (or 48 if i can get away with using Shield Styles while i get the last extra 2 levels in Slash).

While Saracens make excelent Palaof there high Block rate as a Armsman using a 2handed weapon your damage output won't be the greatest. Thrust styles aren't that great and some have evade as a starter (not sure if they changed it). And in order to Auto you will need to spec Crush, which STR based.

 

[-Lotheric-]

Perfect RvR Armsman imho:

Highlander - 10 Str 10 Con 10 Dex

Spec at lvl 50:

50 Polearm
42 Shield
39 Thrust
13 Parry (only possible of autotraining Thrust till lvl 48. 6 Parry otherwise)

Polearm styles beats 2handed styles any day, and you will have Slam and still dish out high damage with your pole.

If you don't like RvR go 50 Slash, 42 Shield, 39 Parry and 6 Crossbow. Best PvE spec for an Armsman.

 

[Ramshir]

Well, just thought I'd give my input as far as polearms go, being the owner of a polearmer. All recommendations here have been hybrid templates, which I personally find to be a bit overrated. Yes, slam4thewin, but...

Rage+Revenge is actually not as hard to get through as many think, especially since you can use backup styles these days. All you need is your opponent to style and bang, you'll hit like a train with Rage and next hit will stun. Then just Phalanx + Aegis to the back, and ain't no-one walking away from that. I'd say I get revenge through in about half of my fights, and even when I dont, it doesn't mean I lose, far from it.

1.62 will fix snare styles. This means with pole, you will have a 12s 70% snare on your _alltimer_, and a 36s one on your Aegis (2nd in back chain) Stun is great for stopping those runners, but snare on an alltimer... Yeah, I'll take that thx.

As a pure poler you can spec 50 pole, 45 damageType and rest parry, 36 I think. This will put all your skills over 50 with an SC set. I already parry quite a bit (parry working much better with 2h weapons), and 1.62 will also make it work even better against groupped people.

RvR with a pole is IMO a blast, with the exception that if your opponent has that 6sec pbt you'll have to play with a dagger to get anything done, but that's a small price to pay IMO. If you have a buffbot even soloing is a hoot, since most stealthers still seem to think Polers are easy prey. I can't remember the last time a stealther managed to killed me solo.

So, all in all, I'd say you'll be just as well off with a pure polearmer as a hybrid. Many will not agree with me on this no doubt, but there's not much else I can do about that except offer my participation in a duel. ;-)

 

[Balbor]

seeing as i won't have to make my mind up until L40+ i've got a lot of time to think it over, so what are the main differences between Pole and 2-handed.

 

[old.mattshanes]

Originally posted by Balbor
seeing as i won't have to make my mind up until L40+ i've got a lot of time to think it over, so what are the main differences between Pole and 2-handed.

Nothing really damage wise.

 

[Zaphod]

I'm currently level 42 and speccing 50 Pole/42 Shield/39 Slash, but was thinking of respecing slash to thrust with the 1.62 patch.

I know 1h Thrust doesn't have any good anytime styles (may change in an upcoming patch soon), but Thrust polearms seem to have the edge on Slash, or so it seems...Plus the Caer Sidi Thrust Polearm looks so much better than the Slash ;p.

Just wondering if anyone else is specced this way? As in: 50 Pole/42 Shield/39 Thrust/6 Parry, and if so, what are your experiences with it?

Regards